Guillermo del Toro is behind some of cinema’s most inventive and visually-pleasing genre films in recent years — Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Hellboy, and The Shape of Water all enjoy stunning costume and set design that complement their stories and which stand out from the rest of what you might see in theaters. A new video from YouTuber Kristian Williams, (aka kaptainkristian) explores why the filmmaker’s movie monsters are so memorable, especially in an age when CGI is so prevalent.

A key reason for why del Toro’s films are so memorable is the attention to detail and effort put into the design of his characters, and how they interact with their surroundings. In Pan’s Labyrinth, Williams notes that the faun complements his…